The Weekend (T-9)

What a fun and busy weekend we had here!  It started with my last day of work before the arrival of junior.  I was in bed and sound asleep before 8pm! I'm seriously ready for some R&R before he gets here... this weekend took care of relaxation, but not so much rest!

Saturday brought sunshine and house projects inside and out. 

 

 

Matt is almost done painting the nursery. (The green is just tape on the molding, but I like it so much, I may just add a contrast trim!)

 

Today started with breakfast in bed and beautiful flowers for me!

 

Then, after brunch with friends, we zipped up to St. Matthew's for some family fun (including Champ)

 He ran around like a nut while we played...

 ...and zipped and zoomed some more.

 Now we are pooped but happy after a great day!

What a happy Mother's Day!

The countdown is on!

 

We're at T-15 days 'til baby makes 5.

(These pictures were taken in March! Yes, I was "that pregnant" 5 weeks ago!)


I'll try to be better about blogging than I have been of late.

I'm back!

Sorry for my absence... it's been awfully busy around here.  But, I'm back!  I mean literally, I'm back.  After 8 days in Oregon, and 4 days in Cape Cod, and a week of work in between... I'm back in L.A. 

Today's post is about as far away from L.A. as you can get... as in.. the Arctic Circle!!



My cousin Greg has his hollywood debut as the subject of tonight's episode of House Hunters International.  I already L.O.V.E. House Hunters and H.H. International, and having a family connection makes it even more exciting!  Check it out: House Hunters International.  Join me in watching him find his perfect bachelor pad in Troms, Norway!  I can't wait to see it!   (7:30 and 10:30pm tonight!!)

In the meantime, here's what we are doing stateside:

Hanging out in Oregon...

Watching the sun set...

 And taking time to smell the flowers!

 I'm also getting ready to do some of my famed and fabled fashion posts! Ack!

 

Maybe this time with a new twist...

A few more...

I don't know where I found these three photos or why I "clipped" them all within 1 minute of each other.  I'm guessing I had window treatments on my mind, because look at the great fabrics on the windows!

 

I also love that these are fabrics that I don't instantly recognize.  (Now that makes me give yet further pause on  the old Samarkand/Riad debate!)

 (I'm pretty sure this grey and yellow kitchen is from a semi-recent issue of House Beautiful)

The combination of fabric, art, and colors in this bedroom is both soothing and energizing.  I like!

I'm starting to see a pattern

Tonight I came up with a good method for avoiding all the gory scenes in Game of Thrones.  I engrossed myself in cleaning out my "screen shots" folder.  As I did, I noticed that I have clipped some fabrics and scenes over and over and over.

First, Peter Dunham's Samarkand.  I had at least 10 screenshots just of the fabric - over the course of a couple years! 

 

 

 

The other fabric I can't stop clipping is Windsor Smith's Riad.

 

Seafoam (above) is my favorite color for Riad, but Dune is good, too.

And here is one of my favorite rooms.  

 

It's Windsor Smith's LA home.  Notice that she not only uses her own Riad fabric, there is a Samarkand pillow on the chair on the right!

 

For the past week I've had a large swatch of Riad draped over my living room chair. (Can you see it on the right?)

 I was ready to reupholster the chair in Riad, but after looking at the Samarkand again, I'm having second thoughts. I might need to order a swatch.  Any advice here? (Actually, because there is a pattern on the back of the chair, I thought I'd cover the two cushions in Riad, and do the upholstery in a solid twill.  Peter Dunham makes a beautiful one in just the right shade... )  More on that later but advice welcomed!

And here's another repeat offender.  Alexa Hampton's basil flushmount light (by Visual Comfort.)

I have planned to put this in my entryway, but somehow still haven't pulled the trigger.  Here's the problem - Do I want brass or polished nickel? Or maybe a gunmetal is the way to go?

To make matters worse, there are also two size. 

Ay yay yay! Making such weighty decisions is too much for my brain, so I continue on the easy path of inaction (and bare lightbulbs, and randomly draped fabric swatches in my living room). 

Slightly brighter

Same room, same set-up, but the sun hadn't set yet!

(but it wasn't super bright either...this is a super slow shutter speed, so it's a teeny bit blurry)

 

A dream day...

Today being Mother's Day and all, Matt and KR agreed to spend the day however I wanted.  So of course I suggested mani pedis, a long brunch, and champagne.  Ha, I picked a real dream day for a mom: organizing, spring cleaning, and rearranging furniture! For an entire day!! 

As you readers know, arranging my living room has been a fond past time.  It's gone from this (before we bought it):

To this soon after we moved in:

In July 2011, it looked like this:

 

And in October 2011, it looked pretty much the same:

And here it is in April 2012, soon after the new sofa arrived. 

 

Well, didn't take long for me to get another itch...This time of year, our backyard makes me so happy -- warm, sunny, blooming and beautiful.  But all the best seats in the house face the fireplace.  I sat for a moment on one of the side chairs, and realized that it would make me so happy to look outward from the living room.  So for about an hour I tried to find a way to make that work!

 Somehow all of my pictures are awful, but I finally came up with something...

No, I didn't change my light fixtures, these are just really awful photos! 

 I'm not convinced this set up is permament, but it was fun to experiment.

And I ended up scooting a few other things around too.

Is it odd that this really was a dream day? Is it funny that the organization and lack of clutter is so soothing to me?

 I finally got the toys all in their correct spots, and did a bit of a purge in the meantime.  I wonder how long we can last without that primary color storage bin thingy...